He said that because more than 70% of Americans back the US Congress in trying to force the Bush administration into bringing the Iraq War to an end... :

"...it is wrong, and I don't think it is doing anything other than giving great comfort and encouragement to Al-Qaeda and the insurgency in Iraq....They are looking at all this, they read newspapers, they see it on television and they say, 'The American domestic resolve is weakening, therefore we should maintain our resolve.'

"If there is a perception of an America defeat in Iraq, that will leave the whole of the Middle East in great turmoil and will be an enormous victory for terrorism."

Howard is high on NeoCon propaganda if he really believes that garbage. As far as the rest of the world is concerned, and the Iraqi insurgency is concerned, the US is already defeated in Iraq. That is not giving aid and comfort to the enemy, that is facing reality before another 3300 American and half a million Iraqi lives are lost.

How utterly disgusting.

How dare Howard try and present an anti-American front simply because the vast majority of Americans, like Australians, oppose the Iraq War. This is not about the reality of war, or the reality of the world, this is about Howard's ego, and his devotion to President Bush.

This news story featuring Howard's shocking anti-Americanism was featured prominently on the Drudge Report for chrissakes. This means that any of the tens of thousands of American journos who daily access the site will see this story and may choose to use it as a dramatic example of fractures in the Australian-American alliance.

It's clearly time to re-name it : The Howard-Bush alliance.

A very separate and distinct alliance to that between the generations of Australians and Americans who have called each other friends and allies, regardless of who is in government.

Howard clearly has no intention of preserving the alliance when the Democrats take control of the White House in 2009. He knows he is going down and will not win the federal election later this year, and he doesn't care.

The prime minister is damaging the alliance and disgracing the name of Australia in front of a war-shattered, grieving nation.

It's time for John Howard to shut the hell up, and keep his nose out of America's internal affairs.